Abstract

This volume focuses (self-)critically on sloganization as an emergent phenomenon in language education discourse. Motivated by an increasing uneasiness with a number of widespread concepts in current language education research that have become sloganized, this volume comprises a collection of chapters by international scholars that scrutinize the discourse of language education, identify popular slogans and reconstruct the sloganization processes. It promotes critical self-reflection of scholars and professionals in the field of language education – a field that has widely been dominated by the need to develop innovative approaches and practices, at the expense of self-critical work that attempts to situate the field and its approaches within wider historical, cultural and conceptual contexts.

This timely collection of courageous, critical and disturbing case studies of scholarly branding to promote academic research should remind teachers and researchers, but also administrators, publishers and funding institutions to keep scholarly discourse honest if it wants to remain legitimate. Sloganization is a pervasive phenomenon well worth further critical investigation.

The volume is a timely and path-breaking contribution to the field and will be an invaluable resource for both experienced and emerging researchers and teacher educators.

In an age of sound bites and tweets, marketing and impact agendas, here comes a book of sane, reasoned, advocacy for a critical view of the slogans which dominate language education worldwide, in English. The authors, drawn from an extensive and impressive array of contexts and sub-disciplines of Applied Linguistics, Modern Languages and Language Pedagogy, offer up their slogans to the slaughter and leave us destabilised and with a clearer view of the ways in which our work is easily colonised by words, heavy with ideological character. If ever a book was needed as an antidote to impact and lazy band-wagonism, this is it.

Barbara Schmenk is Professor of German and Applied Linguistics at the University of Waterloo, Canada.

Stephan Breidbach is Professor of English Language Education, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.

Lutz Küster is Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures/Teaching Methodology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.